First Lady of the US Laura Bush praised the work of the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA) and other Egyptian NGOs during her visit to Sharm El-Sheikh this week. Amr Ali, managing director of HEPCA, gave the First Lady and leading members of Congress a presentation on the work of HEPCA on May 17. The Congressional delegation included Brian Bird, who turned out to be a diver, and Christopher Shays. That afternoon, the First Lady and other VIPs visited the Ras Cathy dive site in Sham El-Sheikh aboard a glass-bottom boat, a rare chance for them to experience the Red Sea's underwater sea life. Mohamed Salem, head of the South Sinai Protectorates, briefed the First Lady on the area under his management and its plentiful marine life. Ali and Seifalla Hassanein, environment team leader and antiquities grant officer at the United States Agency for International Development, briefed the First Lady on the LIFE Red Sea project and USAID-HEPCA cooperation. At the end of the tour, First Lady Laura Bush said, "This has been a very interesting and really beautiful tour of this Ras Mohammed National Park. This is a national protected marine area in Egypt because of the fabulous coral reefs that are below. "I was with people who are scientists here - NGOs that are working with the government to make sure all of this stays protected; members of USAID who also are partnering in this effort to let people be able to see these fabulous coral reefs, but at the same time protect the coral reefs forever. And one of the things they're working on is ecotourism, bringing people here who come specifically to look at the coral reefs and look at the fish that we got to see when we were below, but also are very involved in the environment themselves, have come with the idea of being able to protect what they're looking at. HEPCA's cooperation with USAID started in 1996 when the agency funded training for the association's mooring team of divers, financing the purchase of specialist underwater drilling equipment. This cooperation enabled HEPCA to install and maintain over 1,200 moorings throughout Egypt's Red Sea, the largest mooring system in the world, and to spread the mooring culture to neighboring countries. In 2007, as part of the HEPCA Solid Waste Management Strategy for the Red Sea, USAID contributed to the first Material Recovery Facility in Marsa Alam, which was visited this week by the Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company Neville Isdell.
